Battle of The Denmark Strait - Background

Background

On 18 May 1941, the battleship Bismarck was ready for her first voyage against allied shipping, "Operation Rheinübung". She was accompanied by Prinz Eugen, a new heavy cruiser also on her maiden mission. Admiral Günther Lütjens, the German fleet commander, intended to break out into the Atlantic through the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland and attack Allied convoy traffic in the North Atlantic. Earlier raids by German capital ships such as the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had done enough damage to cause the British to use some of their older battleships such as the Revenge class as convoy escorts. Although old and slow, these ships were well armed with 15 in (380 mm) guns, more powerful than the guns of the German heavy cruisers and pocket battleships. Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, though, could risk attacking a convoy escorted by one of these battleships: Bismarck could engage and attempt to destroy the escorting battleship, leaving the lighter Prinz Eugen to chase down and sink the fleeing merchant ships.

The two ships were expected to try to break westward through the Greenland-Iceland-UK (GIUK) gap. While passing neutral Sweden in the Baltic Sea, they were first spotted by the Swedish cruiser Gotland and patrol planes from the neutral country; these reports were intercepted by the British embassy, allowing the Royal Navy ships to watch their probable route. Aircraft scheduled to assist in the search could not do so when the German ships attempted their breakout because of cloud and rain. On the evening of 23 May, despite the advantage of foul weather to cloak their presence, the Germans were spotted, steaming at 27 kn (31 mph; 50 km/h), by the heavy cruisers HMS Norfolk and Suffolk. These ships were patrolling the Denmark Strait under the command of Rear-Admiral Frederic Wake-Walker. With the help of Suffolk's newly installed radar set, the cruisers shadowed the German ships through the night, reporting on their movements.

The next morning, the German ships were intercepted in the Strait between Iceland and Greenland by a force of British ships. These were the battleship Prince of Wales, the battlecruiser HMS Hood and a screen of six destroyers, under the command of Vice-Admiral Lancelot Holland on Hood. Prince of Wales was a newly commissioned King George V-class battleship, of much the same size and power as Bismarck. She had not yet been properly "shaken down", and her crew was green. She still had mechanical problems, especially with her main armament, and had sailed with shipyard workers still aboard working on her. Hood, following her commissioning in 1918, remained the largest warship afloat for 20 years. Between the wars, more than any other ship she had represented British naval power in the eyes of Britain and the world. But her armour was less comprehensive than a battleship's and her lower armoured deck was too light to stand against long-range plunging fire. The outbreak of World War II prevented her from undergoing required modernisations, specifically the lower deck thickness increase from 3 in (7.6 cm) to 6 in (15 cm). Even so, Hood's firepower, 15 in (380 mm) guns, was the equal of any German ship afloat.

Far away to the southeast, Admiral Holland's superior, Admiral Sir John Tovey debated whether to order Admiral Holland to allow Prince of Wales ahead of Hood. In this position, the better-protected Prince of Wales would draw the enemy's fire. He decided not to give this order, later claiming, "I did not feel such interference with such a senior officer justified."